New Kanza Cafe finding regular clientele

Eatery opened in January in building owned by USD 501

Jay Corbur, 19, who is in the Next Step program, helps clear a table on Friday morning at the Kanza Cafe, which is operated by Topeka Unified School District 501 in one of its buildings on the old Topeka State Hospital grounds, 2701 S.W. East Circle Drive South. The cafe opened Jan. 22 and is within walking distance of Hummer Sports Park.

A new cafe operated by Topeka Unified School District 501 is allowing students to get a feel for what it takes to run a successful business while allowing area residents to get breakfast and lunch for a reasonable price.

The Kanza Cafe, which opened Jan. 22, is located at 2701 S.W. East Circle Drive South, just west of S.W. 2nd and MacVicar and east of Hummer Sports Park.

The building, owned by USD 501, formerly served as the cafeteria for the Topeka State Hospital, which closed in 1997.

Jake Taylor, food service manager for the Kanza Cafe, said much work went into sprucing up the building before it reopened last month as a restaurant.

The cafe is operated by paid adult staff members, though volunteers from USD 501 high schools assist as volunteers. Also serving as volunteers are students in the Next Step program, which teaches job and like skills to individuals ages 18 to 21 who haven’t graduated yet from high school.

“They love it here,” Taylor said of the volunteers. “They like getting tips, and they get food for free.”

Taylor said the young adults in the Next Step program are “proud” to be wearing uniforms — including caps and aprons — while they work.

Taylor said students learn the valuable skills of customer awareness, food service, graphic design and entrepreneurship.

In time, Taylor said, he would like to see students from local high school entrepreneurship classes take a more hands-on approach to the Kanza Cafe, including in such areas as business planning, marketing and menu development.

Prices range from Topeka High School cinnamon rolls for 75 cents each to hamburgers for $3 to Belgian waffles for $1.50.

The lunch hour is proving to be the busiest time to date, and the work crew is learning to speed up its food preparation so people don’t have to spend much time waiting for their food.

On many days, the cafe is flooded with bright sunlight that comes through its east windows, adding to the cheerfulness customers find inside the cafe.

Donna Waddle, 74, of Topeka, as she sipped a cup of coffee on Friday, said she enjoyed coming into the cafe and being greeted by “this clean, bright, shiny” cafe.

Though it has used no paid advertising, the cafe is reaping the benefits of word-of-mouth and is picking up a regular clientele.

“I really like that it’s here,” Waddle said. “This is the second time I’ve been here. I brought some friends with me today.”

The cafe — which is open from 6:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Monday through Fridays — served its first meals less than a month ago, yet it already is attracting a regular clientele.

Niki Jahnke, food service manager for USD 501, said the Kanza Cafe seemed like a natural fit for the building.

She said she wasn’t aware of any similar program at public schools in Kansas.

Jahnke said that though the cafe is in its first month, it is close to realizing its goal of turning a profit. She said she expects revenues to climb in coming weeks.

“I’ve been very proud of the success we’ve had so far,” Jahnke said. “We actually have regular customers already.”

Jahnke said she and deputy superintendent Larry Robbins came up with the idea for the Kanza Cafe.

Among regular customers who work in the area of the Kanza Cafe is Donne Njuki, 28, of Topeka. Njuki said she comes to the Kanza Cafe twice a day, and is grateful to have the new eatery near her workplace.

“They have a good variety,” she sad. “Their daily specials are really good. They have really good prices. It’s bright, it’s clean and it’s relaxed.”

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This cafe may serve good food, but it is not a real life example of how the business world works. The taxpayer is bearing the risk, not an individual and a bank. The real life lesson being taught to students is, get your hand in the public trough.

Concerning health insurance, that is folly. The taxpayer is footing the bill for health insurance. This business could not stand on it's own in the real world.

If the goal of 501 is to teach students how to work in a cafe, they should send the students to work in real world situations at numerous for profit concerns around town, or, to Kaw Vo-Tech.

learn a marketable skill, under trained chefs, without the pressure of a for-profit institution, and STILL people complain. When they graduate, and prove themselves, they'll have a greater chance at advancement, and become taxpayers, thus returning back to the community. These are investments, not a waste of money, and the short-sighted people who can't see that, are working against their own self-interest.

OK so the profits go to the school system. Is that a bad thing? Everybody complains about the tax dollars cut from the school system. Then when the school system starts making some money at providing training for the students they complain about that too.

You think this is "competition" for small business? How many of you even KNEW about it before reading this article? How many of you are willing to drive over to 2nd & MacVicar to eat school-lunch quality food? How many of you have ever driven by Cook's American Grill at lunchtime? Good luck finding a parking spot.

Please. This is doing a great service to the students who are working there. That's it. END of story.

We continuously have this debate about education funding. My position is that if we focused on core curriculum then I would not have a problem with increasing education funding. Unfortunately, though, we continue to hear stories like this of money being spent on projects like this that are way outside the scope of core curriculum. Do you see how frustrating it is when we hear people say we just need to put m0re money into the system?

What good is math, reading, and science going to do for these students? How about make them more productive members of society. Instead you want to teach them how to work at McDonald's at taxpayer expense.

You missed my point: if they got to age 18 or 20 without picking up on math, etc., through formal classroom instruction, what makes you think that formal classroom instruction NOW is going to have different outcomes?

These are young adults who have failed (or been failed by) the system of formal classroom instruction. It's time to try something different with them. Teaching them to work at McDonald's is better than allowing them to leave school with no skills or credentials, and no way to be a productive member of society.